Ontario's police chiefs want power to suspend officers witho

If the drift of Canada towards a police state has not yet affected you directly, you would do well to recall the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller, writing in Germany before his arrest in the 1930s: "The Nazis came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I was a Protestant, so I didn't speak up....by that time there was nobody left to speak up for anyone."

Ontario's police chiefs want power to suspend officers witho

Postby Thomas » Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:41 am

Ontario's police chiefs want power to suspend officers without pay

Ontario’s police chiefs want significant changes to the province’s officer discipline system so that officers charged with serious misconduct can be suspended without pay.

While Ontario’s police chiefs want significant changes to the province’s officer discipline system so that cops charged with serious misconduct can be suspended without pay, they’re still not happy with pending legislation that does just that.

While Ontario’s police chiefs want significant changes to the province’s officer discipline system so that cops charged with serious misconduct can be suspended without pay, they’re still not happy with pending legislation that does just that.

The Community Safety and Policing Act, which was passed in 2019 but is not yet in force, does allow police brass to suspend officers without pay. Set to replace the Police Services Act, which only allows chiefs to stop paying suspended officers who are convicted of a crime and sentenced to serve jail time, the legislation has been criticized by Ontario’s top cops as ponderous.

Chatham-Kent police Chief Gary Conn, the Ontario chiefs association president, was unavailable for comment this week, but said in a recent statement the public is demanding more transparency and accountability from all police personnel, including chiefs and senior leaders.

“The current and proposed police discipline system puts officers, senior managers and the public through unnecessarily procedurally laden processes that takes far too long to complete, does not meet normal labour law standards, does not protect subject officers and witnesses from pointless public exposure to intimate and personal details, and is far too costly at the provincial and/or municipal level,” Conn said. “We can and must do better.”

The resolution by the police chiefs calls for a “grieve and arbitrate” model where suspension without pay is a discipline option. Officers who are punished could grieve the decision to an independent arbitrator.

“Our government agrees that the nature of policing and community safety has changed since the Police Services Act, 1990 was first introduced,” said Stephen Warner, a spokesperson for Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. “The issues faced by police services and their members today are more complex. That’s why we made changes in the Community Safety and Policing Act that will enable a chief of police to suspend an officer without pay as an interim measure under particular circumstances set out in the act and its regulations.”

Since the new legislation will allow officers to be suspended without pay, Police Association of Ontario president Mark Baxter doesn’t know why the chiefs passed their resolution.

“We already know that chiefs of police are going to have the ability to suspend members without pay under certain circumstances. That’s already in the act,” Baxter said. “Why the (chiefs association) is calling for that now when they’ve been an active stakeholder at the table for those meetings is confusing.”

Baxter also questioned Conn’s description of the discipline system as “procedurally laden.”

“From our standpoint, what that means is it’s due process and respects the rights of our officers and our members,” said Baxter, whose organization represents more than 28,000 police personnel from 46 police associations, including Chatham-Kent’s.

“We know that allegations against front-line police officers are common. It really has become a point now where it just kind of goes with the job. We need to ensure that officers’ rights are respected and that they’re entitled to due process when they receive a complaint.”

The new act will also hold chiefs and deputy chiefs to the same standard as their officers, but the chiefs’ proposal doesn’t, Baxter said.

“The system that they’ve proposed, essentially this ‘grieve and arbitrate system,’ removes the chiefs from public accountability,” said Baxter, whose association supports the Community Safety and Policing Act.

“The new act expands police oversight, provides greater accountability, which the public wants and accepts, and we accept as well,” he said.

The Ontario government has appointed its first inspector general of policing, Devon Clunis, to provide independent oversight and set up an inspectorate of policing to help develop regulations under the new act.

“Our changes will enhance police oversight in Ontario by creating a simpler system for public complaints, reducing delays in the investigative process, increasing transparency in investigations and ensuring greater accountability,” said Warner, the solicitor general’s spokesperson. “We want to ensure Ontario has a police oversight system that will help build safer communities on a shared foundation of restored trust.”

Ontario is now the only Canadian province where suspended officers continue to collect their pay cheques unless sentenced to jail.

The current system has let some suspended officers spend years collecting a salary while waiting for a disciplinary hearing or a trial.

For example, Chatham-Kent police officer Robert Mugridge received almost $400,000 in salary while under suspension for more than three years. He pleaded guilty in August 2017 to defrauding dozens of people of almost $250,000, but he didn’t resign until early 2018, just before he was about to be fired.

https://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/n ... ithout-pay
Thomas, Administrator

User avatar
Thomas
Site Admin
 
Posts: 2562
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:18 pm
Location: Canada

Return to Policing the Police

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 22 guests

cron